For a friend, she's mid 40's, 5'7", road rides and athletic. Wants to mountain bike locally which is Surrey Hills/Kent singletrack. She claims to know nothing about mtg so has asked me to pick a bike(!) with a very healthy budget of £1.5-2K.
Now I haven't ever bought a new bike, and tend to be rather retro minded! So a few questions:
- our local riding tends to be fast, singletrack, nothing gnarly or tech - so full sus or hardtail?
- I've always looked at low weight being a great advantage, still true?
- worth going women-specific bike, she's 5'7"?
- new or secondhand (I'm spanner friendly so can help if secondhand)
- any brands that are particularly worth looking at?
Any suggestions or recos would be ace ... thanks
I'd aim for a 130mm 29er full sus she can get from a local shop. Means she can have that back up if she's new to mtb.
Sonder Cortex when they're back in stock.
Or On One Scandal hardtail
Both well within budget
The Calibre Bossnut and Triple B are both fantastic bikes. Available from a shop (Go Outdoors) as well which is a bonus if there are any issues.
When they’re back in stock the Vitus Mythique is pretty well specced, as is the Calibre BBB. Sonder Cortez or Evol are both fairly well reviewed too.
Probably unlikely to be many sales but if there’s anything like a Giant Trance or Trek Fuel Ex that squeak into budget they are both probably good options too.
I'd go mainstream 650b short travel full sus, Giant, Trek, Specialized, Scott, from a local shop (once they've got stock). But nothing to stop her finding likely candidates online first.
Full sus for comfort/ capability, 650b as it'll be easier to handle for someone of her height I'd have said, and more importantly, more fun, but depends how fast/competitive a rider she is or wants to be.
Obviously you get more for your money with a hardtail in terms of componentry for a given price, but if possible she should ride both HT and FS first to see what she prefers.
thanks ... and what about buying a WSD vs not? From what I can see, the differences for WSD are relatively modest, and she's not tiny so a S or SM 'mens' bike would be OK?
I suspect she'll be fairly fast, 1-2hr rides - we've got great singletrack on our doorstep.
I would Suggest a 27.5+ for a newbie. Very forgiving, massive grip and very fun.
At 5.7 a 29er might be too much.
Get in touch with Bird Cycleworks and see if she can demo a Zero HT and Aether/Aeris FS back to back - not only will that give her an idea of whether she prefers hardtail or full suss, the Zero is a great bike and should be able to get a really nice one for the budget. They're also selling off the Aeris 145 frames very cheap, so might be able to do a build of on of those for not much more, although that might be a bit too heavy duty for the intended riding!
Aeris 145 sounds a bit much for her requirements tbh - that’s a long and slack enduro bike.
Even the Zero AM boost is a lot of bike - hardtail wise I think the Zero TR or Zero29 perhaps for someone wanting non-gnar trails to ride.
Bird Aether for trails in terms of fs. Aether probably over budget unless you go for the absolute cheapest build possible.
Is the Rockrider XC 900 S coming back to Decathlon? £1700 for carbon, GX Eagle 29er FS. Would be perfect for non-gnar singletrack I'd have thought?
Merlin have kona hei hei trail for 2k at the moment, that would be ideal.